Subtonomy, a leading network experience platform provider in the Nordics, has announced that it will be attending AfricaCom in South Africa to bring its world-class digital customer support offering to the continent.
The African Digital Revolution
It’s time to reappraise Africa’s place in the global digital market. Long held back by affordability and availability issues, the advent and availability of cheaper smartphones and ubiquitous, higher-capacity mobile networks have provided a huge springboard for growth. Young, internet-savvy Africans are optimistic and opportunistic about tech, utilizing it as a platform for their creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and thirst for education. Already the world leader in mobile money, Africa is poised to leap forward, unencumbered by legacy technologies and processes and empowered by youthful demographics. The continent’s rapid transition to a mobile-first, digital economy means that it already has more smartphone users than North America, and by 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa will have 474 million internet users (39% of the population).
New Demands on the Network, New Customer Expectations
Whether it’s using their phones for banking, finding work, shopping, creating, listening to music or watching their favorite shows, young Africans have moved far beyond their parents’ expectations of mobile services. While the future of the African mobile market may look bright, it’s not without challenges, however. In the next few years, African operators will have to cope with the onboarding of large numbers of new customers. Additionally, they’ll have to find cost-effective ways to support those transitioning from 3G to 4G, from feature phones to smartphones and from simple to complex service offerings.
As if all of this weren’t enough, the expectations of African Gen Z customers are also rising rapidly. Like their social media friends around the world, they expect high-quality, uninterrupted services backed by world-class, 24/7 customer support when things go wrong. If they don’t get it, they’re more willing than ever to simply walk away.
And this is precisely where African operators can benefit from the experience of other mobile-first markets such as the Nordics. Operators in the Nordics have pioneered efficient and cost-effective digital customer care for years. Subtonomy’s customers, for example, are already able to automate 75% of customer support in digital channels and increase contact center efficiency to deliver 60% fewer escalations and 47% faster call handling.
Future Proofing Support
With things moving so rapidly in Africa, it’s hard for operators to manage change cost-effectively or predict what their support operations will look like in a few years. Will future African customers have virtual reality-based support or get help via their digital assistants? Whatever happens, operators must squeeze the maximum value out of their existing equipment to keep costs down and reduce disruption, while at the same time innovating their customer support offerings and preparing for what’s coming. Fortunately, there’s a win-win here as well. Subtonomy’s Network Equipment Platform takes data from any existing source – including legacy probes (e.g., Amdocs, Anritsu, Commprove, Empirix, Exfo, Polystar, Radcom, Tektronix, Teoco or Viavi), BSS and OSS, cell data and device data – to deliver a 360° real-time view of actual customer experience, empowering 24/7 holistic support.
“As the African mobile market matures, customers will expect better support from operators. As researcher Herring Shava recently pointed out, two of the biggest causes of dissatisfaction with support are operators’ reliability (not doing things when they said they would) and responsiveness (not informing customers when they intend to fix problems). We’re proud to have helped our clients fix both these issues in the Nordics and look forward to helping African operators revolutionize the way they support their customers in the future – giving them both happier customers and a competitive edge,” noted Andreas Jörbeck, CEO, Subtonomy.
